Tressel still has supporters, including his boss

Posted by John Taylor on May 18, 2011, 11:41 AM EST

There are many people — yes, looking at you Mike Bianchi, Beano Cook — who have been very open with their feelings that they don’t think Jim Tressel will last as Ohio State’s head coach beyond the 2011 season. Some, including Buckeyes legend Chris Spielman, question whether or not the beleaguered/embattled coach will be on the sidelines at all in 2011.

Given the track record his attorney hopes will help see him through the troubled NCAA waters he’s currently traversing, however, Tressel is not without his supporters both inside and outside the football program.

Most importantly and above all else, Tressel still appears to have the backing of OSU athletic director Gene Smith.

“Oh, definitely, no question,” Smith said when asked at the Big Ten meetings in Chicago if he still supported his football coach. “I haven’t changed, I haven’t changed. But I’m not talking about the case beyond that.”

Smith’s not alone. While his opinion doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne was effusive in his praise of Tressel.

“I know Jim quite well and I knew him back in Youngstown [State, where Tressel coached before OSU],” Nebraska athletics director Tom Osborne said during a recent visit to Cedar Rapids. “My impressions of Jim are No. 1, he’s a very sound football man. He’s very good and knows what he’s doing.

“He’s a very principled man, which has got to be very painful to have your integrity called into question when, basically, that’s the way you’ve lived your life. So, what all happened, why he did what he did, I don’t know. But I do know I would trust the guy.

“I don’t think he’s someone who’d deliberately cheat or try to buy a player. He would never do that. I hope he does [survive the current turmoil], because I think the sport will be diminished without him.”

Not to pick nits with the classy Osborne, Tressel’s not accused of deliberately cheating or trying to buy a player, unless you consider covering up violations committed by a handful of his players to be the former.

Be that as it may, and as noted by Marc Morehouse in his solid “Tressel = Elephant in the room” piece for the Cedar Rapids Gazette, some of those in attendance would prefer to let others speak on Ohio State’s “situation”.

As for Tressel’s future, the coach will begin parallel preparations over the next couple of months — one for getting his team prepared for a 2011 season in which he will be suspended for the first five games, another for his legal team to prepare his defense in front of the NCAA Aug. 12.

As has previously been reported, Tressel has retained the services of Gene Marsh to represent him when he appears before the NCAA. Marsh was a member of the NCAA’s infractions committee for nine years, including two as its chairman, before specializing in compliance issues as an attorney for the Alabama law firm of Lightfoot, Franklin & White.

As he continues to make the interview rounds in support of his newest client in a talk with the Columbus Dispatch, Marsh chastised the media for, unlike his contemporaries in the Big Ten, piling on the poor coach.

“This case has had no small amount of incredible piling on by media who otherwise – their sole credential is blankety-blank dot-com,” Marsh said. “All is fair in love and war, and people are free to write what they want. But it’s almost as if some people think if they write one more article, it will be the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

That’s not the way it plays out in the room, Marsh said.

“This is a serious matter with serious people involved,” Marsh said. “They are not going to get all jazzed up or get their head turned by some dot-com writer somewhere.”

Of course, Marsh is absolutely correct. The NCAA is not going to get all jazzed up over the media pile-driving Tressel’s battered and bleeding coaching body. What they might get all jazzed up about, though, is… oh, I don’t know… the head coach of a Div. 1-A football program lying to them and covering up violations. S0mething along those lines, in that neighborhood.

Instead of worrying about how the media’s playing their own version of the blame-and-sanction game, Marsh needs to be concerned about his client’s future, one that may or may not include a show-cause.

And regardless of how much public support he gets from his contemporaries.

Of course his boss supports him, his boss is one of the crooks running SMU Light.

The Bowtied Under The Table Paymaster supports him too. The “compliance officer” supports him too. Cause they are all involved in the pay for play program. I’m sure those kids on the payroll support him too. The Professors of Basket Weaving 101 and Reviewing Films support him as well.

polegojim says:May 18, 2011 12:14 PM

Minor infraction guilt. Nothing that actually changes on field performance.

He’ll have a great 2011 season and now has even more to prove via on field success…

The adults in charge of OSU will eventually decide to cut Gordon, Gene and Jim at roughly the same time. See the recent example at USC. Petey knew the ship was going down and bolted. Jim would be smart to follow suit.

blanketey-blank.com most likely refers to Bruce Hooley.com. Bruce got taken of the air from OSU’s local radio station for speaking out against tressel and this current situation. he doesn’t hold back on his thoughts of tressel, and writes about it regularly.

This is the guy that allowed L. Phillips to play after he beat and sexually assaulted his girlfriend. He also allowed C. Peter he raped a women, sexually assualted a second and groped another. Keep in mind that the rape was watched by other football players and swept under the rug by the coaches.

Just ask Kate McEwen, Kathy Redmond, Melissa DeMuth and Natalie Kuijvenhoven what they think of Tom O.’s mentorship of young football players.

The appropriate response to Phillips and Peter would have been something along the lines of what OBL got from Seal Team 6.

iamtalkingsolistenandlearn says:May 18, 2011 1:45 PM

gatorprof says:
May 18, 2011 1:42 PM
BTW, Tom O is a scumbag of the first order.

This is the guy that allowed L. Phillips to play after he beat and sexually assaulted his girlfriend. He also allowed C. Peter he raped a women, sexually assualted a second and groped another. Keep in mind that the rape was watched by other football players and swept under the rug by the coaches.

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Then Tom O. would be PERFECT as the next coach at OSU !

Sounds just like a Tressel clone to me

iamtalkingsolistenandlearn says:May 18, 2011 1:48 PM

1buckeye76 says:
May 18, 2011 1:41 PM
blanketey-blank.com most likely refers to Bruce Hooley.com. Bruce got taken of the air from OSU’s local radio station for speaking out against tressel and this current situation. he doesn’t hold back on his thoughts of tressel, and writes about it regularly.

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This Bruce Hooley sounds like a man of honor. A local guy speaking out about what wrong. Not following others, not burying his head in the sand, not wearing blinders.

I’ll remind you that his professional coach, Dick Vermeil, made the case that Phillips wasn’t the first NOR was he the last to do this (This was in response to some guys who questioned the Rams for taking him and about how coaches and schools had managed to get this swept under the rug many years before). The fact is that this stuff happened long before Osborne or any of the “modern” coaches and until the mid ’70s, it was usually handed before word even made it out of the police station and records got “lost” and women got paid off. I’m not saying that it’s right but to say that Osborne is a scum bag is to ignore the other “scum bags” that were coaching at the same time.

Let me see, in 1997, John Cooper, OSU coach voted for Nebraska in the coaches poll which allowed Nebraska to split the NCAA Championship with Michigan. This was the year Osborne retired – little wonder that he supports OSU’s coach!

a complete moron who likes to listen to himself write stupid post responses.

“BTW, edgy is a scumbag of the first order.” He’s a Boise State guy spewing bull spit who is out of touch with reality and keeps his head buried completely up his ass while wearing a thong bikini (cause he’s a little freaky when it comes to cyber stalking Buckeyeboy).

edgy has an obsession with buckeyeboy being a young girl says:May 18, 2011 2:46 PM

wow iamtalking, don’t sound so bitter man, I mean lots of people get denied from attending OSU. I’m sorry that you were one of them. Just look where your southern school education got you, you’re the weekend manager of burger king!

on second thought, that is terrible…..btw ur boss needs you to get bck to work, those fries don’t cook themselves!

Some may think that not only do I hate Ohio State but I hate Tressel but the fact is that I only dislike their fans AND the only thing I have against Tressel is that he put his record ahead of doing what’s right. it’s funny how some people want to hold other coaches to a higher standard but when a guy like Tressel falters, they make all kinds of excuses for him (He was doing it for the kids. It’s totally out of character for him to do this. I don’t think that he did anything wrong. The NCAA shouldn’t have gotten involved in the case, in the first place). I don’t think that he should be fired but I do believe that the school is going to pay a high price for his indiscretion.

To make your point, you will have to find other examples of “scumbags” that knowingly allowed multiple rapists, sexual assault perpetrators, etc. to remain on their team so that they could win national titles.

Brooks was his first coach and coached him longer than Vermeil, who cut him after 9 or 10 games.

I honestly don’t understand who’s more immature Buckeyeboy, or this “edgy is under…” asshat. Their only comment on any argument is poking fun at others, and yet they call others trolls. “Hey pot your Black”

To all OUS fans, I know most are level headed however these two asshats are not doing you guys any justice. I don’t blame you or OSU. You can take the boy out of the trailer park, but you can’t take the trailer park out of the boy.

Baloney. Seriously, do you honestly believe that TO is the worst or one of the worst? My God, I remember when I was going to school that there were several KNOWN incidents that were swept under the carpet and the police took care of it, even before the coach ever got wind of it. Let’s not forget that until Ball Four and North Dallas Forty came out, EVERYONE covered up for athletes — coaches, police, the press — and after that, it was open season. Do you remember Lance Rentzel? Maybe you do or maybe you don’t but he was one of the first openly accused sexual predators among athletes, who was married to one of the sexiest women of his time and he had the unfortunate luck of behaving badly in the ’70s. 5 years earlier and nothing happens and his career takes a different turn (Ironically, in an interview supporting Tressel, TO talked about the fact that things were WORSE before the SMU scandal and he believes that it’s gotten a lot better since they got the DP). BTW, I think that if you want to talk about guys that need to be taken to task, I give you Calvin Murphy: 14 kids and 5 of his daughters have accused him of molestation. Any idea of when Calvin played his ball — hint: it predates TO’s head coaching career at Nebraska and I guarantee you that someone probably looked the other way while he was in high school and Niagara so don’t tell me that there aren’t coaches out there besides Osborne that enabled their players. I’m not going to make excuses for him but to say that he’s the biggest scum bag is ridiculous.

chefklm says:May 19, 2011 8:03 AM

@gatorprof

Question for you jerkoff, just how many gaytors recieved police records the past few years under Urbans watch? Or is it you still have a serious butt hurt about the beatdown of the ’96 Fiesta Bowl?

ob1canobie says:May 19, 2011 10:59 AM

Everyone here has missed the point IMHO… Tressel wins game, most importantly the Michigan game. I am not a fan of either team, but when you trounce your rival year after year you could be a mass murderer and still be the coach. It is all about winning to sell those tickets… oh yeah and something about school pride in there somewhere. So long as Tressel wins he will be the coach.

iamtalkingsolistenandlearn says:May 19, 2011 12:29 PM

A teacher starts a new job at a school in Columbus and trying to make a good impression on her first day, explains to her class that she’s a Buckeyes fan.

She asks the class to raise their hands if they too are Buckeyes fans.
Everyone in the class raises their hand except one little girl.

The Teacher looks at the girl with surprise and says, “Mary, why didn’t you raise your hand?”

Because I’m not a Buckeyes fan,” she replied.

The teacher, still shocked, asked: “Well, if you’re not a Buckeyes fan, then who do you support?”

“I’m a Wolverine fan, and proud of it,” Mary replied.

The teacher could not believe her ears. “Mary, why are you a Wolverine fan?”

“Because my Mom and Dad are from Michigan , and my Mom is a Wolverine fan and my dad is a Wolverine fan, so I’m a Wolverine fan, too!”

Well,” said the teacher, in a obviously annoyed tone, “that’s no reason for you to be a Wolverine fan. You don’t have to be just like your parents all of the time. What if your Mom was a weirdo freak with 12 different names, a prostitute, and mentally challenged and your Dad was a mentally unstable loser with 12 different personalities and a car thief, what would you be then?”

Mary said, “A Buckeyes fan.”

dkhhuey says:May 19, 2011 12:54 PM

Excellent – slow news day, low blogging responses on all other stories, lets just throw out a ‘hey, no new news about the OSU story so lets just ask Gene Smith if he is going to fire Tressel’. No – still our coach! EXCELLENT!!! Worthy of posting it just to get the normal froth and stupidity going!

There is, however, a difference between stupid kid stuff and knowingly covering up for sexual predators. Tommy O. traded national titles for his integrity by keeping scumbag rapists on the team. That is a simple fact, period.

When one of Urban’s best players got a stupid DUI before the biggest game of the year, he was suspended…Dunlap and the Bama game.

When one of Tommy O’s best players was arrested for beating and sexually assaulting his girlfriend, Tommy O. suspended him but brought him back for the Fiesta bowl….Phillips and the Gator national title beat down.

Yup, you guys whipped us. The sad thing is that you didn’t need to have two rapists on your team to do it. Nebraska was clearly the better team without Phillips and Peter. Had Tommy O. kicked both off the team he probably still would have won a title that year and would have had his integrity in tact.

Nice to see you defending a guy who basically condoned women being beaten and raped by his players. Is there any other way to say it when a coach allows rapists who beat women to remain on his team?

I think, due to this situation and how he handled it, Jim Tressel should be suspended for the entire season. Whether he knowingly did these actions on his own or is taking the blame to cover someone else, he has tarnished the school and the football program to the point that you cannot go anywhere without other teams’ fans just piling on, and there is little that can be said in response. If Tressel had just done what was necessary when he learned of these “infractions” (put in parentheses because these infractions seem extremely petty when you scan the front page of this site alone and see story after story of players being arrested), this would have all blown over and been a non-issue. He, or whoever he may be covering for, really screwed it up. As the situation stands right now, Tressel should not be fired, nor should the Athletic Director. However, they should be placed on a “probation” of sorts, and the next infraction from either of them, no matter how minor, results in both being fired.

On another note, I do not understand this whole “lack of institutional control” thing. Is this in reference to not having control over the players so that they go out and do something wrong and get in trouble? Or is it a matter that other members of the football/athletics department did not do something about the cover-up?

If it’s the former, then why don’t more coaches and football programs come under scrutiny and punishment if one of their players is arrested? If the coaches and/or athletic director is supposed to have more control over the players, shouldn’t this occur when a player does anything wrong, whether it be missing classes, accepting money from an agent, getting arrested, or any number of other infractions?

If it’s the latter, how would other members of the football/athletics department have known about the cover-up if Tressel was withholding all of the information?

I understand why all of this scrutiny and what-not has been directed toward Ohio State, Tressel, and the Buckeyes football players involved, but shouldn’t that same level of scrutiny, or more even, be leveled at those who commit far worse infractions, not only against the NCAA and its rules, but the laws of the land?

chefklm says:May 19, 2011 4:56 PM

@ gatorprof

Wow, how about the OTHER 20 or so criminals that played for your hero? Typical hypocrite SEC fan who condems a football icon, but somehow trivializes his program’s indiscretions. The whole point here is you referring to Tom Osbourne as one of the worse people in college football. But obviously when compared in a unbiased way to say someone like Urban… Well those of us who are not homeristic mouth breathing idiots can see you like to flaut your stupidity.

gatorprof,
You just keep proving my point. Osbourne gave Phillips a second chance, for which he blew. But straight up comparisons of Osbounre’s and Meyer’s record prove beyond a shadow of a doubt just who the bigger scumbag is.

Now your making light of the criminal element at Florida is laughable. Yeah you say you denonce it, but please… Hind sight is always 20/20.

Or as I have stated before, I belive this is more of a jealousy issue.

Re:”But straight up comparisons of Osbounre’s and Meyer’s record prove beyond a shadow of a doubt just who the bigger scumbag is. ”

Proof please. Here is a starting point…

1) Please tell me the number of times that Meyer gave a “second chance” to guys arrested for rape or sexual assault.

2) Please count the number of times that Meyer gave a “second chance” to guys arrested for sexual assault.

3) Please count the number of times that Meyer gave a “second chance” to guys arrested for attempted murder.

4) Please count the number of times that Meyer gave a “second chance” to guys arrested for beating their wives or girlfriends.

5) Please count the number of times that Meyer openly interfered with police investigations.

Meyer gave second chances to a bunch of guys busted for DUIs, weed, etc. When a Gator Turd did something like , he never saw the playing field again. See for example, Ronnie Wilson, Avery Atkins, Jaques Rickerson.

Meyer never had anyone do things close to what Phillips, Peter, etc. did, period, let alone keep them on the team.

Until it was cleared up, Johnson wasn’t allowed to be anywhere near the team. It turned out to be an absolutely false charge.

Now, can the same be said for Lawrence Phillips, Christian Peter, etc.? They were both convicted of domestic battery, sexual assault, and/or rape…BUT they still played for good ‘ol Tommy O.

chefklm…still waiting for you to address these issues, but that will likely never happen. Facts are tough to deal with…

chefklm says:May 21, 2011 8:06 PM

Here’s facts for you jerkoff; felony burglary, aggravated assault, battery, stolen police property, illicit use of weapons AND Maurkice Pouncey accepting $100,000 before the Sugar Bowl. (And did he play in it?) Yeah I know you’re gonna say that he’s innocent, so was O.J.

Fact of the matter is Florida has been dirty since the Gaylen Hall days, if not before. But you can sit in your single wide and pass bullshit judgement on anyone else like you have a clue.

5 national titles, a winning record against the gaytors and everyone else in the SEC with the exception of Alabama. And far more academic All Americans than your typical UF grad can count to.

So continue to flaunt your ignorance and hypocrisy. Oh, and your jealousy.

Now, was he innocent? Possibly. However, the girl filed a restraining order saying that he raped her. He violated that restraining order. Innocent or not, violating a valid restraining order is still breaking the law. If he was unaware that he was on the same bus with the girl, why did he get off the bus at the same exit she did? Sounds like intimidation to me.
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“Until it was cleared up, Johnson wasn’t allowed to be anywhere near the team. It turned out to be an absolutely false charge.”
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In that same article you posted, it was said that the decision to bar Johnson from team activities was not made by the football program (wasn’t said who made the decision, but I would imagine it was the athletics department or the university itself, so Urban Meyer did not administer any punishment on Johnson).

Johnson not facing charges or the girl dropping the charges does not equate to it being a false charge. Maybe she was intimidated into dropping them. Maybe she was paid off. Maybe there wasn’t enough evidence and she realized it wasn’t going to go anywhere. Maybe he was innocent of it all. Just because he didn’t face charges in the end DOES NOT mean it was absolutely a false charge.

You wanted examples of Meyer giving second chances to players accused of sexual assault, beating a girlfriend, etc. Johnson fit the criteria, regardless of whether or not the charges stuck. He was given a restraining order dealing with sexual assault and he violated it.
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“Now, can the same be said for Lawrence Phillips, Christian Peter, etc.? They were both convicted of domestic battery, sexual assault, and/or rape…BUT they still played for good ‘ol Tommy O.”
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My question would be this: If they were convicted, why were they not in prison? Seems that the issue is more on the justice system for letting them stay in school and out of prison even though they were convicted of these crimes, rather than Osborne for letting them play. If they want these players to be held accountable for their actions, maybe it should be taken out of the coaches hands entirely and they be put in jail/prison for their transgressions.

Too many times you see athletes, pro and college, get in trouble with the law and basically nothing happens. If they would be punished according to the law (and just like an average person would be), I guarantee that the amount of athletes doing these stupid things would drop, seeing that they would actually be punished for what they are doing instead of a $25 fine and 1 minute of community service. Same goes for politicians, but that’s another issue altogether.

Of course, there will still be those athletes who will do bad things regardless, but if you really punish them, maybe it will stop someone else from thinking they can get away with it if they do it as well.

My main point is that his only crime, the only thing that he was ever charged for, was violating a restraining order (that was filed for $11 without him being aware of it) by being on a bus. He was never arrested or charged with sexual assault, rape, etc., nothing.

This is much different than what Peter and Phillips were charged and convicted of….

FYI, Meyer was out of the country when this happened, so the athletics department took appropriate action.

I hate seeing the Gators show up in the Gainesville Sun mugshots page as much as anyone. The police here have zero issue with hammering the athletes.

As for an example of how Meyer handles an arrest for domestic battery…Jacques Rickerson’s case is still far less than what Peter and Phillips and look at the immediate action,

Re:”My question would be this: If they were convicted, why were they not in prison? Seems that the issue is more on the justice system for letting them stay in school and out of prison even though they were convicted of these crimes, rather than Osborne for letting them play. If they want these players to be held accountable for their actions, maybe it should be taken out of the coaches hands entirely and they be put in jail/prison for their transgressions. ”

The legal system certainly failed, but the coaches should have an even higher standard.

Most coaches won’t allow guys convicted of rape, sexual assault, etc. on their team. Tommy O is in a league all by himself.

chefklm says:May 22, 2011 11:11 AM

Gatorprof says; “I’m not defending Carl by any means”.

And yet in a previous post he makes every excuse AND pretty much blamed the girlfriend for getting him in trouble. Classic SEC hypocrisy, add to the fact that Gatorprof equates every criminal act by gaytor players to a parking ticket.

As stated before, decades of cheating and criminal behavior make UF a dirty program of the first order.

gatorprof, there are two groups of holier-than-thou fans that make me laugh, OSU and Florida and yet, the Buckeyes aren’t so arrogant as to create an award that tweaks the nose of one of their rivals and then has to sit back with embarrassment as their school is as much and sometimes, even more of a miscreant. The big deal about that article isn’t because of Osborne and any sense of hypocrisy on his part as much as it was a response to the Cornhusker fans, who were being holier-than-thou when they put down the Sooners, who had more than their share of off the field incidents AND charges that Switzer interfered with law enforcement (SI article about Switzer.A quote from Barry about his philosophy about disciplining players“We don’t inhibit, muzzle or restrict our players,” Switzer has said. “You can’t manage kids that way. I don’t want to be managed that way.”

As for Phillips, he was suspended but not kicked off the squad and the incident cost him a higher place in the draft and let’s not forget, he was still drafted in the first round after all that AND he was given chances by the AFL, NFL Europe and the CFL, even after more incidents, so it’s pretty dumb to single out Osborne.

As for Peters, his chickens came home to roost after he was drafted and he was cast adrift by New England; HOWEVER, the Giants came a calling the next year so it seems that he was also enabled by someone other than Osborne and the incident that led to the Patriots casting him off was known about them a month before the draft and it was more of the media and the wife of the owner that were responsible for him getting thrown under the bus than it was the organization. After the Giants were through with him, he was given a chance by the Colts and the Bears — again, people who aren’t named Osborne.

chefklm says:May 23, 2011 2:33 PM

@Edgy

Couldn’t have said it better. I’ve spoken to many fans of the SEC. Alabama fans, gracious to a fault, total class acts. Same can be said of LSU, Georgia and the Tennessee fans I been privileged to know. But Florida fans…

Sanctimonious assholes, especially since their program hasn’t been relevant to the elite more than 15 years. And yet they think they’re God’s gift to football.

Fact is though Gaytorprof won’t admit it, is that it’s blind jealousy on Nebraska for what they’ve done to Florida. There’s no other reason for his idiotic rant.